Thompson lobbies Bill Gates

US lawyer Jack Thompson wants Bill Gates to take a personal role in shutting down sales of Grand Theft Auto IV later this year.

Jack's concern, as usual, is that a violent game is very likely going to end up being sold to minors - something that he claims a December report from the Interfaith Centre of Corporate Responsibility backs him up on.

Targeting Gates, head of Microsoft, whose Xbox 360 format will enjoy day-one support from the GTA series for the first time this year, Jack says, "please have your lawyers contact me in order that such sales will be prevented".

He's intent upon avoiding sales of the game to minors, apparently, perhaps best illustrated by the section of his new email where he literally says that he's intent upon avoiding sales of the game to minors: "I and others will endeavour to stop Microsoft from participating in any fashion, directly or indirectly, in such sales to minors," he says, illustratively.

The annoying thing is, his position this time is less ludicrous than the one he adopted with Canis Canem Edit - a game he tried and failed to get banned on account of content he claimed existed without ever having played it - and he hasn't pulled out the "murder simulator" nonsense yet, so we're less inclined to pillory him for sport.